I have been using the Phone (3) for over 30 days as my primary device to test out how the device performs in real world scenarios.
📢This is the review unit provided by Nothing India as part of the Community Review Program. However, they have had no input on my review or my impressions. These are completely my views based on my experience of using the device for a month.
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Starting with the Unboxing Experience:
The unboxing experience feels premium and thoughtfully done and is no different from the other Nothing devices and is a great experience overall. Their unboxing experience is unique and exciting with its slim box. The packaging was great and stands out. Unboxing all the phones from Nothing has a similar experience and yet it is exciting and interesting every time. This has a design of the rear side of the phone printed on their box. Overall, their packaging and user’s unboxing experience is great and feels premium.
Here’s what’s in the box of the device:
A phone,
A cable,
A transparent clear case,
A sim ejector tool and,
A documentation,
Also, no charger in the box
1. Design:
The design of the Phone (3) is very controversial and subjective. Some like it and some don’t. The design is very unique and asymmetrical. While, the rear is asymmetrical the bezzels on the display are symmetrical which means the bezzels are same on all the sides and edges of the display.
2. Build quality and in-hand feel:
The build quality of the Nothing Phone (3) feels solid and premium. This phone definitely stands-out with its unique design. The device features a 6.67-inch Amoled LTPS display which offers great viewing angels and multi-media consumption. The device is bigger making it difficult to use with one-hand, especially if the hands are smaller. The ports and buttons are perfectly placed without making the reach to the buttons awkward or uncomfortable. For protection, the device has Gorilla Glass 7i on the display and Gorilla Glass Victus on the back. The front and back panel is made up of glass with aluminum frame. The device has good water resistance of IP68. Overall, the build quality and the in-hand feel is premium.
3. Display:
The device has a 6.67 inches Amoled LTPS flexible panel which offers great viewing angles and is great for multi-media consumption. The device has a dynamic panel which switches between 30hz-120hz refresh rate. It stays constant at 120hz throughout the UI. The device supports Gorilla Glass 7i on the display. The display supports 4500 nits of peak brightness which is visible only when streaming HDR content and that also on the small portion of the display. The device has 1600 nits of high brightness mode and 800 nits of normal brightness making the display visible in outdoor conditions. The display is pretty bright in the indoor as well as outdoor. Unfortunately, it has HDR10+ certification and HDR works fine in YouTube and other streaming apps but Netflix doesn’t support HDR on this device.
4. Haptics:
The device supports X-axis linear motor and the vibrations feel sharper and precise as compared to other Nothing devices. The haptics motor is 14% larger than the previous generation device, the Phone (2). Overall, the haptics are great and well implemented in the OS. Even though it lacks haptic implementation in important areas like brightness bar or the volume slider. Implementing this would be a great upgrade.
5. Software Experience:
The device comes with Nothing OS 3.5 based on Android 15 out of the box. It doesn’t support the Dolby Vision. The Phone (3) has 5 years of major updates and 7 years of security patches update support in which security patches would be rolled out every 2 months. Nothing OS is fast, responsive and fluid, lag-free and bloatware-free. The UI and the user experience both are great. Nothing OS 3.5 introduces some new features, especially in the Essential Space. Some of the features include flip to record which is basically hold the essential key and flip the device to start recording and press and hold again to stop the recording. When starting or stopping the recording, a nice animation is played in the glyph matrix. It also has essential search which is basically a universal search for searching any document, file, folder and contact as well on the device. And also for asking queries and doubts. It uses AI to answer the doubts asked. The essential search can be accessed from the app drawer itself.
6. Glyph Matrix:
The glyph matrix is a small display on the back of the Phone (3). It consist of 489 individual LED’s animate differently for different tasks like flip to glyph, flip to record, notification ringtone, call ringtone. The glyph matrix has some unique glyph toys which can be controlled using the pressure sensitive button at the back side of the device. The display is more useful and shows more information rather than just the LED strips. The glyph matrix has some cool features and animations like caller name when call is received, nice animations and different animations. Some example of glyph toys are:
Battery toy: This shows the current battery level of the device.
Digital Clock Toy: This shows the current time in the digital format.
Glyph Mirror Toy: This shows what is shown from the rear cameras even when the screen is off and long pressing the glyph button captures the photo and is then saved in the gallery.
Also, there are plenty of community made glyph toys. For making the glyph matrix features and the glyph toys they have provided SDK.
Link: https://github.com/Nothing-Developer-Programme/GlyphMatrix-Developer-Kit
7. Performance and Gaming:
The device is powered by Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 which is capable processor for handling all the day-to-day tasks like scrolling social medias, consuming content, gaming, multi-tasking etc. This device runs everything smoothly. The device has UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5X RAM type. Now, talking about real-world gaming performance. I have tested out Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI also. Both the games are smooth and BGMI constantly stays between 110 FPS to 120 FPS and in frame drops as well it recovered quickly. Now coming to the figures, 40 minutes of BGMI gameplay drained about 18% of battery and the battery heated up to 43 °C. It could have heated more, all thanks to Vapor cooling chamber available in the devices which restricted the battery and the device to be more on the warmer side.
8. Camera:
Check out my detailed camera review with plenty of samples here
https://nothing.community/d/39824-phone-3-detailed-camera-review
9. Speakers:
The Phone (3) supports stereo speakers, which is great for the audio output. The speakers of the device are loud and clear. The sound doesn’t stutter or lag. The output impresses in multiple areas like songs, songs of various genres, gaming sounds, video sounds, calling on speaker mode etc. The clarity also doesn’t fluctuate at high volumes. Overall, the speakers are loud and clear for multiple genres and types of output from the speakers.
10. Battery and Charging:
The Phone (3) has a large battery of 5500 maH. It supports wired fast charging up to 65W. The battery backup is great consistently providing around 8-10 hours of backup in moderate to high usage including the games like BGMI, CODM, multi-tasking, etc. The device supports wireless charging of up to 15W and 7.5W of reverse wireless charging. Now coming to the figures, for me it took around 1hr 3 mins for 5% to 100%, 24 minutes for 5% to 50%, 1hr for 20% to 100% and around 22 minutes for 20% to 50%. These tests were performed using the original transparent cable from Nothing and 100W adapter from CMF and these were done under ideal room conditions without using the device till it gets charged. I did feel a bit of warmth when the device was getting charged and after un-plugging it quickly cools down. Overall, the battery performance is great.
11. Network and Connectivity:
I have been using this device for about 30+ days and have been using for calling, mobile data, Bluetooth connection, hotspot and other connection features. This device has dual nano sim card slots and supports e-Sim as well which is great. It supports Bluetooth version 6 and didn’t have any connection issues while connecting with with my smartwatch and wireless earbuds. For calling also there are no issues with the sound, volume, call disconnection. The device maintained a good 5G connection without any call drops or net drops throughout the call. Regarding the call, the proximity sensor also works properly during the call. Overall, the network and connectivity of the device is quite impressive.
12. Now talking about the pros and cons of the device
👍Pros:
Unboxing Experience,
Battery,
Unique Design,
Build quality,
Clean, bloatware-free, lag-free OS
Haptics,
Speakers,
UFS 4.0 and,
Glyph Matrix
👎Cons:
Pricing
Gorilla Glass 7i at the front. Instead Gorilla Glass Victus would have been better
13. Final Verdict- Is the Phone (3) worth is?
The Phone (3) has a unique design and definitely stands-out even though the design is subjective. The Phone (3) has many pros like the best unboxing experience, larger and better batteries, UFS 4.0 so higher read/write speeds, superior haptics. The cameras are great even though there are some inconsistencies in lowlight video from the front camera which can be fixed via software updates. The pricing is a bit on the higher side. Apart from the pricing its a great device overall. If the price gets lowered it will be value for money and I will be able to recommend it to anyone in search of a new flagship phone.
